Analyse language in a literary extract

Extract from a short story set in rural County Antrim:

"The bog stretched in every direction, patient and unchanging. Conor walked at the edge of it, feeling the soft give of the ground underfoot — a slow, uncertain hospitality. Somewhere beneath the surface, he knew, the bog kept its secrets: old things, preserved and waiting. He had come here for a year and a half now, and still the bog did not speak to him. It only listened."

How does the writer use language to present the relationship between Conor and the bog? (8 marks)